Marketo Management Tips

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo
Managing Your Marketo


© 2013. Josh Hill. Licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike with Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Visit http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com for more on marketing automation.

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Chapter 1. Managing Your Marketo

At a Glance
Overview
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Naming Schemes
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Organizations of Folders
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Archiving Assets and Campaigns
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Deactivating Old Things
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Chapter Review


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Recommended Resources
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Overview
Great, you purchased a Marketo License! Now you are on your way toward becoming a Rockstar.
Rockstars, believe it or not, are organized. They leave nothing to chance and they practice disciplined rocking, er,
Marketing. Setting up Marketo to function well should be one of your first actions before using the system for your
big marketing push.
I promise you a few minutes of thought and careful setup will save you hours and days later.

Naming Schemes
One of the first things Marketo suggests to new users is to devise a naming scheme for your various programs and
assets. I agree. I have seen several options over the years and recommend one or more of the following. Please feel
free to modify this for your business, but keep in mind the reasons I chose these methods over others.
Keep the name clear and memorable so if you ever leave the firm, others can start where you left off.
Naming is also important because it can help you find assets while you setup filters or triggers. In particular, the
creation of Smart List reports and Reports becomes much easier when you can use a filter like
Visited Web Page Web Page CONTAINS “webinar”
instead of finding every single webinar you want to include.While Marketo does allow searching of names of assets,
the functionality is limited because it works best on the first few letters or numbers (which is why dates are so
important).

Marketing Campaigns & Programs
For dated activities, I prefer the Leading Date Method:
YYYYMMDD Descriptive Name Goes Here



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YYYY MM DD Descriptive Name

Good Example
20122008 TradeShow Las Vegas Attended
20120315 Cloudforce SF Lead Swap
For child campaigns in Programs like a webinar you can also use these:
1 – Invitation Flow
2 – Thank You Flow

The advantage here is you clearly mark the order of steps for your Program. Nurturing, webinars, and events benefit
from using a number system.
Another good example is from Brian Wood of Radisys who adapted SEO style naming for his nurturing programs.
Note also his clear naming for Smart Lists and Static Lists.




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Bad Examples (Don’t do this!):
Trade

Show Las Vegas-Upload May 13

May 12 2020 Social Rock Attended – JDH
12202011_My List Created By Joe
Under_scores_are_unneccessary_and_break_search
It’s true; any dashes should have a space. Underscores are totally unnecessary because they break the search
function on each section. For instance, if you type in
Use Trade to find any trade show, Marketo will ignore any names like Trade_Show_2010

Data Management and Lead Scoring
These campaigns manage data changes and are not inherently dated campaigns. I recommend names to be specific
about what they do and when.
CXO Title Scoring for Product X
White Paper Scoring – Batch
White Paper Scoring - Triggered
Inactive Leads – 30 Days
Lead Source Changer – PPC to AdWords
Employment Range Fixer – (10-19) to (Under 20)

Emails
Email Templates should have a name such as
EIU Event Template 2012 – Approved
IBM AdWords Template 2012 – Approved


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Emails are dated material and should always used the leading date method:
YYYYMMDD – Tim Geithner Webinar Invitation
20120922 – Best Guide to Industry Ever Promotion
One exception is for Sales Alerts. Most firms use one of these schemes:
Alert – Lead Assigned to You
Sales Alert – Lead Revived by Nurturing

Landing Pages
Landing Pages are special cases because they also include URL slugs for SEO.
Marketo Name: names for Development and Approved Production Pages

Naming for Templates Under Development:
Template 1 Column – 2012 – Testing

Naming for Templates Permitted for Use:
Template 1 Column – 2012 – Approved
Another method, pioneered by Eric Hollebone, is to use all lowercase titles with dashes. Doing so aligns the
Marketo Name and SEO Slug as well as allows Marketo’s search function to operate better.
Descriptive-name-is-great
20120922-industry-webinar-registration

Search Engine Optimized Name
SEO is an entire industry in its own right, so this is a short recommendation on SEO in Marketo because I see
almost no one properly handling this. When you first create a new Landing Page and start to type in the Marketo
Name, Marketo automatically uses this text in the page slug. This is wrong.



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Go to the Landing Page Slug and change the name immediately. I recommend doing this right the first time, but you
can always use URL Tools to adjust it later. The name should always look something like this:
http://go.yoursite.com/[PAGE SLUG]
http://go.yoursite.com/how-to-use-marketo-forms-webinar-20120922.html
Do not use
20120922 Dreamforce Party Test 2 because that becomes
http://go.yoursite.com/20120922DreamforcePartyTest2.html
The dashes are critical because this is the standard way Google and Bing expect to parse keywords. A few tips I’ve
learned are here, but keep in mind that your SEO agency or SEM/SEO Manager should handle SEO.



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1.
2.
3.
4.

Keep important words at the start of the page slug just like you would work with a sentence or paragraph with
Strunk & White.
Keep names in lowercase.
Use keywords in the page slug and make sure those keywords appear in the copy. For instance a page selling
economic data should have the slug Russia-economic-data-forecast-2015.
Remember people do look at URLs in text emails and in the browser bar just as much as computers do. Having
a poorly worded slug or a sinister sounding slug will not help you gain trust. For instance, AB Testing requires
two pages, so it is good to make sure your Test Group URL and Page Slugs are not obviously testing something.

Forms
Caution: Do not make
Forms inside Programs.
You’ll see why later.

Naming forms is simple since you should have a limited number of forms you can re-use for various purposes.
JDH Standard Form (this is the form I usually use)
JDH PPC Form (special form with code to help track PPC info)



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JDH Live Event Form (live events require different registration detail)
JDH Webinar Form (short form for webinar sign ups)
You can use the Leading Date Method here, however, you should almost never need to create a date specific form.

Smart Lists
Smart Lists require more description than dates, although you are welcome to use Leading Dates especially if you
were using the smart list as a report substitute.
Since you will use many of these lists across the system, be sure to be clear when naming them so they will be easier
to search for, and to select.
Descriptive Name - Special Criteria

Good Examples:
Test Names Exclude List
House Suppression List
Customers by Product – Product 1
Blank Country and UK
Lead Activity in Past 6 Months
20120214 Valentine’s Day Contacts



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Bad Examples
MKTO Filter 1
Inferred Product interest-UIJ
My List 26

Lists
Static Lists have many uses in the Lead Database as well as local Lists in Programs. Sine we also use Static Lists as
upload tools, it is vital to use Leading Date so you and others know the original upload time. If you discover an error
later, or just want to keep track of files, this is the best way.
In the Lead Database:
YYYYMMDD Descriptive Name
[Date of Upload/Event] Descriptive Name

Good Example:
20122008 Trade Show Las Vegas Attended
20120315 Cloudforce SF Lead Swap



Bad Examples (Don’t do this!):
TradeShow_Las Vegas-Upload May 13
May 12 2020 Social Rock Attended – JDH
12202011_My List Created By Joe
In a Program:
Descriptive Name List so it appears as Program Name.Descriptive Name List
Since we will use local lists to build Nurturing Programs, using the right naming scheme is vital.

Reports
Reports in Analytics can be named in a similar fashion to Smart Lists or Static Lists.
Descriptive Name
YYYYMMDD – Descriptive Name
Leads by Month – Webinars
PPC Landing Page Activity – Past 180 Days


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Search Tools
Marketo recently updated the search tools on Marketing Activities, Design Studio, Lead Database, and Analytics to
allow you to find by type of item, not just name. If you adopted a clear naming scheme, as described above, your
Search box and filtering tools should help you even more.



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Organization of Folders
Folder organization is important because some people will need to go through the folder tree. The other key reason
is many Reports, such as Campaign or Program Reports, use the Folder Tree Selector to choose groups of
campaigns to report on. If you set this up correctly, it will be much easier to choose the right data.
*There is a known issue where you can create a deep folder structure, but when cloning, Marketo will only show
you 1 level deep. Do not be deterred by this minor bug; just get your structure right.

Marketing Activities
Since this is your main work area for your team, it is vital to decide on a solid naming scheme before getting too far.
Marketo’s initial setup is a good starting point. Here are a few suggestions for you. This is an overview of how you
might organize your folders overall:



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for Programs, you might follow Marketo’s new template system, or create your own. Marketo’s approach works
well as a starting point. I usually use a similar system, grouping Local Assets by Type and Campaigns together with
a numbering system.

Design Studio
Design Studio has 5 areas, two of which have Templates, which are seen across the system. When collapsed, this is
how your Design Studio looks.



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Landing Page Folders
I recommend creating a Dev and Production section for your Templates. Train your team to use the Production
Templates and to name Dev and Production Templates differently to avoid confusion.
For other pages, I use Year – Subject or Year – Channelmost of the time.

You can also create a series of Archive folders for deactivated pages.



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Form Folders
Forms require just Archived, Dev, and Production. Again, remember to name Dev and Production Forms
differently so they are distinguished in the other menus.

Emails Folders
Emails are similar to Landing Pages. You may have more channel or dated folders. Don’t forget Sales Insight and
Alerts if you use them.



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Snippets
Snippets can also use folders.

Images and Files
You should create a folder list like these so images and files are easier to organize. These folder names do not
impact actual URLs, but I like to use the SEO naming method here anyway.



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Lead Database
Lead Database also ends up being the most disorganized very quickly. One tip I learned from Marketo is to use topic
and Username folders to organize both kinds of lists. For instance, you may have universal lists driving newsletters
or Customers, or even lead scoring. You should place those lists in one place whenever possible. The other kind of
list is created on the fly for a report, or someone builds a campaign that uses that list.
System Smart Lists cannot be changed.



Smart Lists
Here is an example of a Subject and Team Name folder system.


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My Lists (Static Lists)
The same rule applies here because you will have these scenarios:
Someone who uploads a series of lists.
Lists uploaded for a campaign
―System Lists‖ created by campaigns to make counts run faster.



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Analytics
The Analytics report folders contain the default reports and each type of report can live in its section or it can live at
the top folder. Since you can only create sub-folders of the report type folders, keeping custom reports at the top
level quickly makes a big mess.
I recommend creating User only sub-folders for each report section. You can still use search to find these reports,
but organizationally you will find it easier if each user keeps her reports in her user folder. Why? Because you will
probably ask a person for a report and that person will become responsible for just that report.



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Archiving Assets and Campaigns
Caution: archived,
activated trigger
campaigns are still
active.

You can also Archive old assets of any type using the Archive feature of folders. Once a folder, program, asset, or
campaign is inside an Archive, it is no longer visible to Search and it looks all filed away  Do keep in mind
Archived campaigns are not deactivated. The logic will still work, so if you plan to archive an active campaign, you
should consider deactivating it first.
Here is a summary of what happens when something is Archived:
What Changes
What Does Not Change
Asset is no longer visible in search. Results
Global search still searches Archived
will return the collapsed Archive folder.
folders.
Assets no longer appear in auto suggest.
Active trigger campaigns are still active.
Templates are no longer available across the Data is available in reports.
system for new assets.
Pages cannot be added to new Landing Page Filters in Analytics will still see the
Tests.
archived asset.
Sub-folders are also archived (and viceversa).
Archived sub-folders cannot be un-archived
unless parent folder is un-archived.

To create an Archive, follow these steps:



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Step 1: Create a folder named Archive – Campaigns
Step 2: Right click on the folder and select Convert to Archive

Step 3: Move assets or other folders to this Archive – Campaigns Folder
Step 4: Optional: convert sub-folders to archive
I recommend creating an Archive Folder in Marketing Activities, and each section of Design Studio.

Deactivating Old Things
“But it’s still good!” - Grandpa
As I work with different clients, I encounter users with newer instances and users with older instances. In each case,
both compile a legacy of active triggers, scheduled batches, and old assets. These collected items make it harder to
see what is currently important and what is safe to remove.
You may have pages with old offers still visible online to people. Pages and emails may have old branding or
addresses listed. Your new intern may have found that great offer from 2009 to resend to 10,000 people—except
that Forrester report is from 2008 and no one cares.
Don’t let this happen to you. Establish a regular procedure for deactivating and unapproving old stuff.



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Turn off Triggers and Batches
When
After Every Webinar

What
Webinars:

After Events

Events

Quarterly

Data
Management
campaigns
Autoresponders
Lead Scoring

Quarterly
Quarterly
Monthly

Lead Scoring
MQL

Procedure
After every webinar, turn off Registration flows. If you switch
to an On-demand trigger campaign, set that up now.
Turn off party or roadshow registrations whenever you reach
capacity, or the day of the event.
Review to see if the flow is still required and it is functioning
properly.
Review content and turn off unnecessary flows.
Review to see if the flow is still required and it is functioning
properly.
Adjust threshold as needed.

Unapprove Old Assets
Old emails, pages, and lists can clutter up things and eventually confuse people. Once a year (or twice), hold a clean
up day with pizza and just get it done.
When
Every 2 Months
Every 2 Months
Every 6 months
Every 12 months

What
Emails
Pages
Pages
Templates

Every 12 Months
Every 6 Months

Forms
Smart Lists

Every 6 Months

Static Lists

Procedure
Remove unused or test emails.
Remove unused or test landing pages
Review pages and offers; turn off ones that are stale.
Review templates for updates to your site and styles.
Unapprove templates no longer used or Archive them.
Archive or delete stale forms. Unused Forms can be deleted.
Clean up the Smart List folders. Look at the Used by tab to
help remove unused lists or move them to a more logical
location.
Carefully review lists and delete ones that are no longer useful
for reporting or flows. Deleting a list does not do anything to
the Leads in the list.

I wrote a few other tips on the blog, where I recommend to always default to Not Publish to Sales Insight. This will
save your Sales Team from being confused by hundreds of emails.



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Chapter Review
Self-Quiz
Archived campaigns can still be visible in Reports: True or False?

Organizing Folders is a …

Deleting an asset or campaign is A. Permannent B. Recoverable C. Cannot be done.

Recommended Resources
Marketo Documentation
Archiving Anonymous Leads after 90 Days
More on Archiving Inactive Anonymous Leads
Sales Insight Email Folder Organization
Archiving Assets



Marketo Community
Email Templates
Opt Out of Archiving anonymous leads after 90 days
Data Counts and Anonymous Leads Archiving
Advanced Nurturing Deep Dive 2012 with Brian Wood of Radisys
Create Folders in RCA – Idea
Design Studio Folder Level Limitation
Programs and archiving

Experts
SEOmoz Beginners Guide to SEO
A Marketo Filters and Flows Text Notation Method – Josh Hill


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